corndogs, tilt-a-whirl, 4h club exhibits, funnel cakes and a ro-d-eo: it’s time for the tennessee valley fair

it always seemed the whole point of going to the fair for the farrises was to get corn dogs, a funnel cake, and those little jugs of root beer sold by A&W at the ozark empire fair. we’d go look at the quilts, the cows, people watch and after about an hour and a half we declared ourselves done. this year i got to experience my first tennessee valley fair.

my friend kathryn and i headed out on friday, ready to devour some fried food on a stick, ride some rides, and i was going to expose kathryn to her very first rodeo. i don’t know why but i find rodeo’s intriguing and at the fair, no matter what fair you are at, there is always a free one.

when we first got to the fair we did an entire walk through to get the lay of the land. first we went and saw a cow show. then we headed to the 4H exhibits. things that are way different in tennessee than in missouri with these is a heavy emphasis on vocational skills competitions. these included plumbing, electricity, and cosmetology. most bazaar the display of mannequin heads for hair styling competition, the one i loved most were the saloon design competition in a box.

hair styling competition

and of course i was so excited to check out the fair food entries. i love to see how the judges just take one tiny bit out of it and always find it a tad gross/funny how that food is still sitting around on display 3 weeks latter. how it kind of starts morphing, falling off the plate, etc. how course no pie here! i just don’t understand the south sometimes. seeing the produce competitions always makes me feel determined that one day i am going to have a badass garden to submit prize-winning green beans or something.

blue ribbon pumpkin

prize-winning tobacco...its the south y'all

and of course east tennessee's famous honey

after the tilt-a-whirl, which we concluded would probably be the closest thing you could get to feeling like you were in a washing machine, and one go around on the ferris wheel. we went to find us some classic fried food. out of all the corn dogs, onion rings, cheesecakes on a stick options, we got hand dipped corn dogs by ruby’s who has been at the fair over 40 years hand dipping their dogs and selling beans and cornbread. then came for kathryn’s life changing moment….her first rodeo which of course we celebrated with a funnel cake.